Bridge Day

Bridge Day is an annual one-day festival in Fayetteville, West Virginia,[1] sponsored by the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce. The event, held on the third Saturday every October, commemorates the 1977 completion of the New River Gorge Bridge.[2] On this day, all four lanes of the bridge are closed to automobiles and opened to pedestrians. Estimates have 80,000 people attending the overall event.[2]

BASE jumping

Bridge Day is the only day of the year people are allowed to BASE jump[3][1] off the bridge into the New River Gorge 876 feet (267 meters) below, one of the few exceptions to a general ban on BASE jumping within the U.S. National Park System. People are also allowed to rappel from the span on Bridge Day.[1] About four hundred BASE jumpers participate in each year's festival.

There have been three deaths during Bridge Day due to accidents involving BASE jumpers:

References

  1. ^ a b c Green, Diana Kyle (October 2011). "Fayette County High". Wonderful West Virginia: 4–7. 
  2. ^ a b Sullivan 82
  3. ^ "BASE" is an acronym that stands for four categories of fixed objects from which one can jump: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).
  4. ^ a b Complete Bridge Day History
  5. ^ BASE Jumping Fatality List
  6. ^ "Thousands watch as parachute fails during W.Va. Bridge Day event" Associated Press Newswires, 21 October 2006 19:15

Sullivan, Ken, ed. West Virginia Encyclopedia. West Virginia Humanities Council: Charleston, West Virginia, 2006.

External links